It has been a blissful and incredibly fast 25 days since we welcomed our secondborn to our family. Zaylee Hana joined us on December 29th at 10:33 am, weighing 6lbs 6.3 oz and measuring18inches (which turns out this one is debatable because she was all scrunched up at the time of measurement...so she could have been a little taller lol).
Like Zoe, I decided to get induced but for a slightly different reason. With Zoe, we needed to because she was past her due date and there were absolutely no signs of her wanting to come out. Zaylee was also equally very comfortable being in her womb despite weekly cervix checks. I did have more Braxton Hicks and was generally more miserable in the last few weeks of pregnancy than I did with Zoe, but I had no labor signs whatsoever. We were strategic with Zaylee's birth date, however. Her due date (12/30) falling on the last week of December meant that her birth could potentially overlap with Christmas (12/25), our wedding anniversary (12/28), and obviously New Year's (1/1). Of course, it is not a big deal if it did overlap, but I personally didn't want it to overlap so we strategically wanted her birthday to be between 12/29 and 12/31. So particular of me, I know.
We scheduled in hopes that my OB was there to deliver the baby although that same attempt had failed with Zoe and was delivered by a different doctor (again, this really wasn't that big deal for me). This meant that we are heading to the hospital on the night of the 28th and despite being our wedding anniversary, we wanted to devote our time to spending quality time with Zoe because this was the last day of her being the only child. After her bedtime routine, we gave her the biggest hugs and kisses. I took nice hot shower and gave myself a good hair day before heading out. We arrived at the hospital by 11:30pm to start the induction.
In many ways, Zaylee's birth story is very similar to Zoe's (you can read Zoe's birth story here). I arrived with no signs of labor or dilation so they started me on Cytotec to ripen my cervix around 12:40am. Unlike with Zoe (which I went from 0 to 9cm dilation in 1.5 hours), though, I had a pretty slow progression with very manageable contractions so I received Pitocin around 6:15am. To really start encouraging labor, the doctor broke my water around 8:30am, and boy things really got going fast. In just an hour or so, the nurse confirmed that I dilated from 2cm to 10cm, and my body surely felt it, too. During those couple of hours, my pain tolerance had reached the threshold and I asked for an epidural. Dear moms who do natural labor or C-section, I salute you for the pain you endure during labor and after the surgery...I can never do it.
After about 30 minutes of pushing, I saw Zaylee staring at me and then her roaring cry. All was right with the world, and my love expanded by double in a blink of an eye.
Those who know me well know that the biggest torture for me during pregnancy is not eating sushi, so you bet Z delivered the best postpartum meal late that afternoon, and then I had it again a couple of weeks after on an actual sushi boat! Expecting moms - if you love sushi the way I do, I absolutely recommend this as your first postpartum meal because it will mentally heal your soul (besides meeting your long-awaited baby) and your stomach.
Dear Zaylee - mommy, daddy, and your big sister are absolutely obsessed with you. Welcome to our family!
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